The Brooklyn Brawler
Steve Lombardi (born April 18, 1961) is an Italian American professional wrestler, and road agent. He is also known by his ring name Brooklyn Brawler. He currently works for WWE for Extreme (WWEFE, or just WWE) as a road agent. World Wrestling Federation / Entertainment 1980s Lombardi began his WWF career in late 1983, competing under his real name and being used primarily as an enhancement talent until early 1989, when he was repackaged as The Brooklyn Brawler. The Brawler character was that of a street fighter, wearing battered jeans and torn New York Yankees t-shirts, and smoking cigars. Under the tutelage of Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, the Brawler entered a feud with The Red Rooster. When The Rooster left Heenan's villain group and became a fan favorite, Heenan stated that he had made The Rooster a star and could do the same with any wrestler. After WrestleMania V, the Brawler's alliance with Heenan was phased out and he returned to his former enhancement talent status, a role he would remain in throughout the early 1990s. Since the late 1990s, he has been semi-retired from the ring, working mostly as a road agent for WWF and only occasionally appearing in the ring, usually for comic skits and matches. Lombardi lost to Dwayne Johnson, who would later become The Rock, in Johnson's WWF tryout match on March 10, 1996. Johnson later recalled the match in his autobiography; praising Lombardi as a stand-up wrestler. While semi-retired, the Brooklyn Brawler appeared on the independent wrestling scene, managing the Flying Stirpe Brothers Lou and Rob. Although they achieved little success, they will always be remembered for wreaking havoc and throwing uncooked pasta at the crowd. Despite his status as enhancement talent, Lombardi had some big wins and title shots. In 1991 the Brooklyn Brawler entered into a small feud with new WWF star Big Bully Busick after the Brawler challenged Busick to match to see who the real bully of the WWF was. The Brawler defeated the Bully by countout and in a rematch one week later saw the Brawler dominate the Bully until the latter's manager Harvey Wippleman grabbed the Brawler's leg, leading to a controversial win for the Bully. On October 4, 1993 Lombardi also competed in the WWF Intercontinental title Battle Royal (as The M.V.P.). In 1997, he won a battle royal for a WWF Championship match in Madison Square Garden; he went on to face then-WWF champion Shawn Michaels, but was defeated. On the September 20, 1999 episode of RAW is WAR, Lombardi was one of the replacement referees while the original referees were on strike. In 2000, he scored a pinfall against then-World Champion Triple H in a non-title handicap match and a rare singles victory over Just Joe on an episode of WWE Jakked. 2000s As part of an angle on SmackDown!, he adopted the moniker of the "Boston Brawler," shedding his customary New York Yankees apparel in favor of Boston Red Sox clothing. This was done in response to the Red Sox' defeat of the Yankees in the 2004 American League Championship Series, which propelled the Sox to their World Series victory over the St. Louis Cardinals. Lombardi did this in a segment on SmackDown! (in New York City) with Heidenreich. Heidenreich was looking to make more friends, but Lombardi decided he'd rather be the Boston Brawler. Heidenreich stopped wanting to be Lombardi's friend, which aided Heidenreich's ongoing face turn. In early 2006, he still worked behind the scenes of WWE, including behind the camera with John Cena on his WWE.com show "5 Questions". Cena often makes references to Lombardi, even jokingly calling him the greatest technical wrestler of all time. Also, his face popped up in front of Cena's mouth to censor curse words, usually saying "Nu-Uh!" or "Brawler!". On the June 2, 2006 episode of Five Questions, Brawler showed his face. He even censored himself, saying "YOU are a piece of Brawler". In another episode of "5 Questions," Cena acknowledged that Lombardi was actually born in Detroit, and not in Brooklyn. On May 7, 2006, WWE.com announced that, as part of Jakks Pacific's WWE Classic Superstars collection, they would be releasing a Brooklyn Brawler action figure. In wrestling *'Finishing moves' **''Sidewalk Smash'' (Sending the opponent face-first into the mat from the middle turnbuckle) **Superplex **Swinging neckbreaker *'Managers' **Bobby Heenan **Harvey Wippleman Championships and accomplishments *'Border City Wrestling' **BCW Can-Am Heavyweight Championship (1 time) **BCW Can-Am Television Championship (1 time) *'NWA Michigan' **NWA Michigan Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Category:1961 births Category:WWE for Extreme Category:Wrestlers Category:Managers and valets